Death on Catalunya

Bastuck, 36, was the second fatality in the championship in the last seven months.

Bastuck's Citroen C2, driven by compatriot Nicolai Burkart, went off the road on stage two of the fourth round of the world rally championship. Neither man was initially injured. Organisers said Bastuck was standing next to the car when he was hit by a Ford Fiesta driven by Briton Barry Clark which went off the road at the same place.

Burkart, a competitor in the junior world championship, was unhurt.

"Doctors tried to revive him (Bastuck) while he was being taken to hospital in the helicopter and they continued when they arrived, but they were unable to save him," said a hospital spokesman.

Briton Michael Park, co-driver to Estonian Markko Martin, died in the Rally of Britain in September after their Peugeot left the road and hit a tree on the passenger side.

Before him, the last co-driver fatality was New Zealander Rodger Freeth, whose Subaru rolled in the 1993 Rally of Australia.

The last driver to die in a world championship rally was Finland's Henri Toivonen, killed with co-driver Sergio Cresto when their Lancia plunged into a ravine and caught fire at the 1986 Corsica Rally.